Carla Fiorentino is 42 years old, was born in Cagliari, dreams of opening a publishing house of ironic books, loves cooking, is a writer (she has published two novels) and is the editorial and commercial director of Emons which, in addition to being an editor and doing podcasts, is the largest audiobook production house in our country (it was also the first, the one who believed in it first of all). This month she is the protagonist of an episode of Ear phones which will be focused sugli audiobook (in the gallery, in addition to the usual selection of podcasts that I have listened to and I would like to advise you, you will also find a mini special on the finalists of the Strega prize, the five of which will be announced on June 10. Tip: This year, to keep up with the readings, you may also want to listen to some audiobooks.)
Carla, how do you become the editorial and commercial director of the most important audiobook producer in Italy?
«I graduated in Sociology of Literature in Rome and then I had 12 years of experience in paper publishing. I had a professional friendship with Emons: we at Nottetempo, the publisher for whom I worked for a long time, shared the stand at the Turin Motor Show with them. Five years ago, when the audiobook was about to explode, they decided to reorganize internally and called me as the commercial director. Last year in April, when we launched the department dedicated to podcasts and audio series, expanding even more, I also became editorial director ».
2020, thanks to the pandemic, was the year in which audio had an exponential growth: you also inaugurated Emons Raga, the new series of audio books for children with special contents.
“It is a demonstration that, even from misfortunes, opportunities can sometimes arise. Until 2019, 60% of our turnover was made up of sales of audiobooks in bookstores and 40% of those on digital: now the proportion has reversed. This has also happened thanks to large platforms such as Audible and Storytel which have allowed the growth of the user base. And you don’t know how many listeners have thanked us, in this last year, because thanks to our products they have managed to overcome the worst moments of loneliness during the lockdown ».
How do you choose the titles that will become audiobooks?
“We have editorial meetings where we invite everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, to bring their favorite books, because the audiobooks that work are the ones loved by those who will work on them. This is our first rule, not to mention that Sergio Polimene, general manager of the publishing house, and Flavia Gentili, our director, or rather, “the lady of the recording rooms”, were two booksellers and therefore have a great insight into the matter of books. Secondly, we believe that one of our tasks is to make accessible, through listening, what are the monster-books, works such as Life and destiny at Grossman, The Master and Margherita by Bulgakov – read by Paolo Pierobon is an orgasmic listening -, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy: the audiobook has the ability to take you out, to relieve you of the responsibility of reading which, ultimately, you entrust to someone else ».
Do you also receive book proposals from the actors themselves?
“Yup. We often follow reports from our reference actors, Fabrizio Gifuni, Tommaso Ragno, Iaia Forte, Anna Bonaiuto, Massimo Popolizio. For example, some time ago Spider told us that he wanted to read Green shutters of Simenon because it was a book of his heart, and we did it. In this way, a special harmony of souls is created between reader, book and director, a love that, we are convinced, also passes through listening ».
A technical curiosity: what is the relationship between the recording time and the final duration of the audiobook?
“About double: the 42 hours of Anna Karenina they correspond to about 80 hours in the recording room ».
2021 is the year in which you leave yourselves in a monumental project: the audiobook, or rather, the audiobooks of the Research by Proust, in Raboni’s translation.
«It is an ambitious and well-finished project, starting from the covers created, a different one for each book, by Manuele Fior. The first, On Swann’s side, came out in March and we entrusted it to Anna Bonaiuto. Many have asked us why we opted for a woman: we felt that the beauty of Proust is that his narration has no sex. The second will have the voice of Popolizio, the third of Iaia Forte and the fourth of Ragno. This year there will be four, in 2022 the other three. Each audiobook will be introduced by an audio of the writer Ilaria Gaspari, who will tell some anecdotes about the work. We chose her because we wanted a young and passionate reader voice. Among other things, Gaspari will make an original podcast on Proust with us next year ».
How does the registration phase take place?
“We use three studios, two in Rome and one in Milan, but we are also itinerant depending on where our actor is. For Portnoy’s lament, our director and the technicians went to Berlin because at that time Luca Marinelli was living there. We follow the whole process, from start to finish: after choosing the title, the director begins to work on the text, adding accents, pauses and various indications. Then there is postproduction, where the sound is cleared. We also give the actors suggestions on what to eat, because even a little gurgling in the stomach could reverberate in the audio! ».
You now also have a podcasting department. What kind of products are you focusing on?
«The audio series department was inaugurated with The lawyer Guerrieri by Gianrico Carofiglio, also read by Francesco Montanari, which was a great success as well as Dust, on the reconstruction of the Marta Russo case, a series created and read by Chiara Lalli and Cecilia Sala behind which there is a great work of writing. Scheduled now we have This is the Mou, where the singer Erica Mou tells stories of expatriate women, and before the summer The night the stars fall, a podcast with a surreal flavor, between noir and fantasy, by Simona Baldelli. In the second half of the year it will then come out The diaries of limbo by Manlio Castagna, which will be a horror for teenagers ».
Which ones do you listen to?
«I’m a huge fan of Morgana which in my opinion manages to find the right point between irony and information: for me it is the best Italian podcast. Then I like them The full by Matteo Caccia e Poison e Dark by Pablo Trincia ».
In 2020, however, Emons’ first podcast was yours, Forty. How was it born?
“I had just turned 40 and I decided to throw myself, me and my ironic pen, to write these short episodes in which I played on the concept of” superpowers “applied to forty-year-olds, from the fear of getting old, of getting fat, of not caring about a lot what’s this. Six episodes came out, plus a special dedicated to quarantine. I also add that some I had to register, due to a pandemic, by myself in the closet of my house (with my back to the doors), because it was the only place in the house where the noises would have been somewhat muffled. I had the text on my tablet and, in a headset, I could hear our director connected from her home. It turned out pretty good and it was a lot of fun doing it. ‘
In June Forty it will also become a novel.
“Yup. It will be released by Fandango, the publisher with whom I have also published the novels Tuna don’t swim canned e What do cuckoos do in half an hour, and will have as a subtitle Semi-serious journey into the superpowers of the forties. Some chapters I had to extend, others I wrote from scratch: from six they became 20, and they will be more introspective, because I have included themes such as nostalgia, free time and “verdismo”. Among these I will then choose some, which I will have to reduce this time, to make it a new season of the podcast. A rather intense job! ».
Is there anything you are particularly proud of in your work?
“Yup. For Emons, a series of digital audio books of mine has just started, called “The bedside tables”, which are those books that go beyond the bestseller circuit because, for their strength, they have won my bedside table as a reader. The first is The only daughter by Guadalupe Nettel read by Elena Radonicich, then they will arrive The summer that melted everything by Tiffany McDaniel e Girl, woman, other by Bernardine Evaristo. They are real jewels. I am also proud of the fact that each audiobook will be accompanied by an ad hoc podcast designed as a tip-comment from those who truly loved that book. For The only daughter the voices will be those of Paolo Girella, director of Emons Record, Lorenzo Ribaldi of La Nuova Frontiera and always our Ilaria Gaspari ».
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